Born: 24 August 1928, London, UK
Elected ARA: 20 May 1985
Elected RA: 26 June 1991
Category of Membership: Printmaker

Biography:

Joe Tilson initially worked as a carpenter and joiner from
1944
to 1946, before carrying out his National Service in the RAF
until 1949. He went on to study at St Martin’s School
of Art,
London from 1949 to 1952 and at the Royal College of Art,
London from 1952 to 1955 where he received the Rome Prize,
taking him to live in Italy in 1955. He returned to London in
1957, and from 1958 to 1963 he taught at St Martin’s School
of Art, and subsequently at the Slade School of Fine Art,
University College London, Kings College, Newcastle upon
Tyne, The School of Visual Arts, New York and the Hochschule
fur Bildende Kunste, Hamburg.

Tilson’s first one-man shows were held at the Marlborough
Gallery, London in 1962 and at the Walker Art Gallery,
Liverpool in 1963. In 1977 he joined the Waddington Galleries
and is at present represented by Theo Waddington Fine Art,
the Alan Cristea Gallery and by Giò Marconi Galleries.
His work
first gained international exposure at the XXXII Venice
Biennale, leading to his first retrospective at the Boyman’s
Museum, Rotterdam in 1964. Further retrospective exhibitions
were held at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1979 and at the
Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol in 1984. He has continued to exhibit
regularly in solo shows throughout the world and a major
retrospective, ‘Joe Tilson: Pop to Present’, is
being held at the
Royal Academy of Arts, London (Sackler Galleries) from 14
March to 12 April 2002.

Among Tilson’s awards are the Gulbenkian Foundation
Prize in
1960 and the Grand Prix d’Honneur, Biennale of Ljubljana
in
1996, the year in which he was invited to paint the banner for
the Palio, Siena. He was elected Royal Academician in 1991
(ARA 1985) and lives and works in London and Cortona,
Tuscany.